


we're running with blood on our knees

by somethinglikethat



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Lydia Martin & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Young Justice AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-12 16:08:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1191303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somethinglikethat/pseuds/somethinglikethat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Stiles meets Robin he can hardly concentrate on fighting the drug dealers. She’s a flurry of red hair and fancy karate kicks that has Stiles swooning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we're running with blood on our knees

**Author's Note:**

> Stiles - Kid Flash  
> Lydia - Robin  
> Jackson - Speedy  
> Scott - Aqualad

When Stiles meets Robin he can hardly concentrate on fighting the drug dealers. She’s a flurry of red hair and fancy karate kicks that has Stiles swooning.

 

“Keep your head in the game, Kid Flash,” Flash laughs, startling Stiles.

 

“It is in the game. So in the game.” Stiles drop kicks a thug to emphasize his point and then backflips over another one to show off. He may be new to the whole mask and cape business, but he makes up for his lack of experience with enthusiasm.

 

“Robin is so out of your league,” Flash teases. Stiles makes a wounded noise and twists around to make sure Robin hadn’t heard that. Fortunately, her head seems completely in the game, but unfortunately, Stiles left an opening for a punch to the face. His head snaps back and the shock of the hit makes Stiles hesitate for a moment too long.

 

Batman himself blocks the next hit aimed at Stiles’s neck and he spares a second to give him a terrifying glare that says _I know what you’re thinking and you will stop before you make me do something I will regret_. Then he swoops back into the fight, cape fluttering behind him. The Flash looks torn between chiding Stiles and laughing at his misfortune.

 

-

 

The next time Stiles meets Robin, it’s a month later and Batman and Flash are offworld. The two sidekicks are sequestered to a safehouse for safe keeping.

 

Well, Stiles is pretty sure _he’s_ there for safekeeping. Robin is tapping away on a supercomputer and conferencing with Batman about things that are probably saving the earth as Stiles munches on barbeque potato chips.

 

This goes on for a few hours until Batman goes on complete radio silence and Robin is forced to acknowledge Stiles’s existence, if only because the sound of his loud, obnoxious chewing. Her distaste is clear and for a moment Stiles feels like going to find a corner to cower in but then he remembers he’s a superhero now and cowering is something pre-KidFlash Stiles would do. No more hiding away in dark corners until the bullies get bored and no more taking beatings because he’s no match the older kids at the group home.

 

Kid Flash takes a handful of chips and stuffs it into his mouth, grinning defiantly at Robin. Chips that hadn’t managed to make it into his mouth fall onto his costume ( _“Uniform,” the Flash corrects for the thousandth time, “It’s a uniform, Kid.”_ ) and the rest is chomped on with an open mouth. Robin sneers and then turns back to the computer.

 

Ignoring the slight pang in his chest at the dismissal, Stiles props his feet up and finishes his fifth bag of chips.

 

“I’m Stiles,” he tries.

 

Robin whips around in her computer chair. “Did you just tell me your secret identity?” she hisses incredulously.

 

“Um...yeah?” Stiles says, “The JL all know each others-”

 

“Are we in the JL?” Robin spits, “No. Are we friends? No. Am I going to tell you my name even though no one but _Superman_ knows the identities of Batman and I?”

 

“...no?”

 

“Then try not to be such an idiot. I give it another three months before you’re fired.”

 

Well then.

 

-

 

Stiles has been Kid Flash for a year and a half now and at thirteen, he’s feeling a lot more confident about the whole superhero thing. Flash says he’s been doing a good job lately, but he’s still not allowed to patrol on his own while Flash is away on Justice League missions.

 

But Stiles likes to loosely interpret some of the Flash’s rules. Not the big ones though. He’s not stupid. He’s not going to take on Captain Cold or Boomerang on his own, but muggings? Armed robberies? Common thugs that think Central City is up for grabs when they know Flash is in Washington with the JL fighting this week’s super villain? Those he could handle on his own.

 

However, this time is different. What Stiles thought was a regular cocaine transport turns out to be an international slave trade with metahuman guards. It occurs to him, right before he’s knocked unconscious by a ray gun, that he’s bit off more than he can chew.

 

-

 

Stiles is slapped awake an indeterminable amount of time later.

 

“What are you doing here?” Robin hisses, inches away from his face. She cuts the ropes binding Stiles’s hands with one smooth swipe. “You know what? I don’t care. Go home. This is Batman’s case.”

 

“Nice to see you again too, Robs,” Stiles grumbles and unties the rope around his legs.  Robin and Stiles have met up a few times, sometimes in passing and sometimes on Flash/Batman team-ups, and each time Stiles has managed to leave a worse and worse impression of himself. Last time Robin yelled at Stiles calling him an “incompetent moron who can't take things seriously” and said that he was going to get someone killed one day.

 

“Go home,” Robin repeats, words cold and harsh, “Now.”

 

“I’m here. Let me help.” Stiles tries.

 

“You’re nothing but an eyesore,” Robin says, her index finger stabbing Stiles’s bright yellow costume ( _uniform_ ), “who’s just going to ruin everything. Don’t make me say it again, Kid Flash.”

 

Before Stiles can say, “Fine,” and flee with most of his dignity still intact, all hell breaks loose, and Stiles and Robin are fighting back to back against a small hoard of thugs. Stiles makes quick work of their weapons  with a few laps around the warehouse they’re in, but the metas are a different story.

 

There are three and the one that locks onto Stiles looks like the creature from the Black Lagoon with extra lethal claws and teeth. The other two, one with super strength and one who’s spitting fireballs from her mouth, tag team Robin. Even for her, Stiles can tell it’s a strain and she’s forced to go on defense.

 

The Creature sinks his teeth into Stiles’s arm and _holy God, that hurts_. It tries to fling Stiles off the elevated platform they’re fighting on and into docking area of the warehouse. It’s a pretty big fall of maybe three stories and Stiles is relatively sure he won’t get back up after that kind of fall. He grabs hold of some goo and uses the momentum to swing around and kick it in the back of its head.

 

It goes down, unconscious, and Stiles takes a moment to unsheath its fangs from his now mangled arm. From shoulder to elbow, its a mess of blood and meat and if the Creature succeeded in tossing Stiles, he has a good feeling it would have been completely ripped out of its socket. A quick status check tells Stiles that he’s lost near all mobility in it and even accelerated healing can only heal so fast.

 

Gritting his teeth, Stiles clutches the arm to his chest and barrels into the super strong meta with his good side. The shock spreads throughout his body and  sends pain throughout his arm and shoulder, but Stiles tackles the meta again before it can fully re,cover. He’s pushing the meta towards the edge of the platform that he was almost thrown off himself and Stiles thinks that maybe with just a few more tackles, he can send the meta over. The meta is strong, but not fast and exactly the kind of enemy a speedster is built for.

 

Stiles goes in for another tackle, but the meta swats him out of the way like he’s a fly. All he can do is try to land on his uninjured side, but he’s not successful. He lands with his injured arm taking all of his weight and it breaks with a loud crack. “Children?” Strong Guy sneers and he stares down at Stiles as he writhes in agony. “They send children to try to stop us?”

 

“I don’t know,” Fire Breather smiles. She’s got Robin pinned with a foot against her throat. Robin claws uselessly at the foot, making Fire Breather laugh. “This one’s kinda cute. She’s got a spirit I can appreci-AH! The little bitch cut me!”

 

Then Robin is up and performing acrobatic feats that Stiles would take more notice of if he didn’t have a big ugly meta to deal with.

 

And he’s not the same boy he was when he started all of this. His head is in the game and he won’t be the reason why someone gets hurt. He can take things seriously and show Robin he’s  more than an eyesore (because, yeah, his uniform is really bright).

 

His arm is still on fire, but the pain has dulled down to something he can ignore. Mostly.

 

“5 o’clock!” Stiles yells to Robin, who spins around and smacks Fire Breather with her bo staff, immediately acting on Stiles’s words.

 

Strong Guy charges at Stiles and he has about half a second to decide what to do. Dodging is the simplest answer, but as shown before, Strong Guy might not be fast, but he is good at predicting Stiles’s movements. Trying to slide underneath his legs might trip the him up, but that might hurt Stiles and his broken arm more than it would help him. Springing over him to confuse him and striking before the meta realizes what Stiles is doing is risky, but it’s looking like the best option.

 

Stiles widens his stance and bends his knees, preparing to pounce. He has to hold his ground for a moment that seems longer than what it really is, but as soon at the meta is in reach, he leaps and stabs a thumb into one of the meta’s eye sockets. Strong Guy howls in pain and Stiles hears Robin shout, “Duck!”

 

Stiles drops to the floor just in time to avoid a fireball. Instead of hitting him, it hits Strong Guy with a force that sends him careening over the edge of the platform. When he lands, he doesn’t get back up.

 

Fire Breather lets out a pained cry and turns to Robin and Stiles. If she was dangerous before, that was just child’s play. With the kid gloves off, her entire head and upper shoulders are engulfed in flames and in each hand is a massive fireball. “What did you do! You brats! I’ll burn you until there’s nothing left for your precious mentors to find!”

 

She punctuates her threats with a siege of fireballs that sends Stiles and Robin ducking for cover behind a control panel.

 

“So, I’m taking Strong Guy and Fire Breather knew each other pretty well, huh?” Stiles says while Robin busies herself with a mini computer on her gauntlet.

 

“Well enough to be out of her mind. She keeps this up, she’ll bring the whole warehouse down,” Robin responds, tapping furiously.

 

“Which would be bad.”

 

“Yes, Kid Flash. That would be bad.” Robin snaps. “Here’s the plan.”

 

They didn’t give Fire Breather enough credit because before Stiles can hear the plan, she’s on top of them, blazing and shrieking. Stiles and Robin dive out of the way, but Fire Breather seems much more focused on Robin.

 

“If my brother is dead, I swear to God I’ll burn the whole fucking world to the ground.”

 

She’s completely on fire now, but it doesn’t phase Robin a bit. “Please,” she says as she dodges flames, “From that fall? He’s a meta. He’ll have a bump on the head at most.”

 

The flames die down for a moment, if only slightly, but then Fire Breather rages on as if she hadn’t heard Robin. Smirking, Robin continues to talk, unhindered by the flips and turns she’s doing to dodge flames. Her words are harsh and condescending, and Fire Breather’s flames die down bit by bit as Robin talks before they flare up again. Robin has worked out an emotional connection for the meta’s ability and is using it against her.

 

It’s brilliant, but she’s still on the defensive. She’s stalling for something.

 

Stiles is mostly being ignored, so he looks around frantically for something he could do to turn the tide of the fight. A quick run around the warehouse produces some rope and an emergency fire blanket. Perfect.

 

He returns to where the fight is happening. Robin’s no longer talking, too busy dodging flames to taunt but she has Fire Breather’s undivided attention. It’s quick work, throwing the blanket over Fire Breather and securing it with rope, wrapping her up like a burrito. She’s screaming and flopping around like a fish, but she’s contained.

 

Robin approaches, breath coming out in soft, barely-there pants, and eyes Stiles curiously. “That...wasn’t bad.”

 

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Stiles grins, because hell yeah, he sort of saved the day and Robin isn’t looking at him like he’s a waste of space. Robin stares at him for a moment longer and then nods as if she’s decided something.

 

She doesn’t look the least bit surprised when a flying batmobile suddenly crashes through the ceiling of the warehouse and hovers in front of them with canons aimed and ready to fire. Stiles, on the other hand, squeals and trips over his own feet.

 

“What,” he gasps, “the hell.”

 

“Plan A,” Robin shrugs with a hint of a smile, “but Plan B worked out just fine.”

 

“Is that a thanks I hear?” Stiles can’t help but ask. Robin raises a single eyebrow.

 

“Let’s just get these guys ready for transport.”

 

 _Close enough_ , Stiles thinks and turns to Fire Breather, expecting to see her still wiggling in her restraints.

 

Except she’s laying completely still and glowing red with heat.

 

“Robin!” he yells in warning.

 

And then the warehouse explodes.

 

-

 

Time moves a lot slower for speedsters. An explosion is not a death sentence for the Flash, fastest man alive. Stiles, though he’s not able to reach the speed of his mentor, can escape an explosion a little crispy on the edges, but relatively okay. Carrying the dead weight of a teenage girl toting a small arsenal with a broken arm? Odds were decidedly less in his favor.

 

In in the fractions of a second Stiles has to decide what to do, he doesn’t even think about leaving Robin and saving himself. He he does think about is how a broken arm could or couldn't support the weight of a Robin.

 

It doesn't turn out very well. They get away and Stiles stops in a cornfield a little way off a road, away from prying eyes. He’s more than a little crispy. Chunks of his uniform in various places are burnt off and his arm is in bad shape, but other than that he’s fine. It’s Robin he’s worried about. She doesn’t have powers and Stiles is pretty sure she was on fire at one point.

 

The BatUniform covering her from neck to feet seems to have held up against the flames well enough, but the ends of her hair are singed and the left side of her mask is completely burnt away. Stiles reflexively averts his eyes.

 

It’s a well known fact in the cape community that Batman and Robin’s identities are fiercely guarded. Stiles is the last person Robin would want to know what her face looked like, so he takes off his goggles and slips them onto Robin’s head, gaze focused on the sky. With any luck, Robin won’t completely hate him even more after tonight.

 

Stiles isn’t sure what he should do now. He doesn’t know if the slave hostages have been taken care of or if the bad guys have reinforces nearby. Robin might need medical attention and Stiles’s arm sure as hell does, but in catching his breath, Stiles feels his eyes droop closed.

 

-

 

It’s not a slap that wakes Stiles up and he’s equal parts grateful and relieved. What wakes him up is pain in his arm. “Ow, ow, ow,” he says, flinching away from prodding hands.

 

“Calm down and stay still. I’m almost done.” Robin says with a distinct, unsaid _idiot_. She’s wrapping the top part of his arm. “It’s a clean break and I’ve set the bone, but you’re going to want to get it looked at today.”

 

And yes, the faint light coming from Stiles’s bedroom window tell Stiles it’s already today. “How did we get here?” Stiles asks. He last remembers passing out in the middle of a field in God knows where.

 

“Batmobile,” Robin answers, “Your address is on file.”

 

“And the bad guys?”

 

“Taken care of.”

 

Stiles nods and Robin finishes her work in silence. She’s wearing a new mask and what’s left of her hair is pulled back into a ponytail. Stiles wants to say more, but doesn’t want to disrupt the peaceful silence they have going on. When Robin’s done, she pulls back, but doesn’t stand. She’ s looking at Kid Flash’s goggles sitting on Stiles’s bedside table.

 

“I...I didn’t see your face,” Stiles says, taking care to space out his words so they don’t run together in a jumbled mess only another speedster could understand. “I put them on without looking. I know you and Batman-”

 

Stiles cuts himself off when Robin peels off her mask.

 

“Um…”

 

Without the white lens of the mask, Robin’s eyes are a pretty hazel.

 

“Lydia.”

 

“Um…”

 

Robin ( _Lydia!_ ) rolls her eyes, but there’s more fondness than there is annoyance. “Explosions make me hungry. I’ll be in the kitchen eating your food. Let me know when you decide to check back in.”

 

“...”

 

-

 

There are several consequences from the first ever Robin/Kid Flash team up.

 

The first is that Lydia has to chop off a great deal of her hair. Stiles thinks it looks fantastic and Lydia is miserable for the first week or so afterwards.  They’re also both grounded for taking on a dangerous case without their mentors. Once Flash and Batman cool off, Lydia invites Stiles to Gotham for training and it becomes a regular thing. She was not impressed with Stiles’s combat method of tackle ‘em until they fall.

 

Stiles thinks his rep in the superhero community gets a giant boost from his association with Robin. He’s getting his ass handed to him on a regular basis during training, but for the first time he doesn’t feel like deadweight. He’s not a freeloading burden to the Flash and being more of a distraction than a partner (he’s still freeloading, but Flash is his official guardian so that’s expected). He has a friend and though most of their time is spent trying to teach Stiles different fighting styles and tactics, they do occasionally go for food and do school work together. Batman, as menacing out of costume as he is in it, stops giving Stiles these looks like he’s done something wrong which in the Flash’s opinion, is a welcome to the family.

 

Everything from then on seems to get a little brighter. He feels quicker and smarter. The Flash is impressed not only with Stiles’s improved fighting skills, but his creativity out on the field and new found determination. Stiles doesn’t know if it all has to do with his friendship with Lydia, but their mission together signaled a turning point for him. He feels like he’s finally worthy of wearing the lightning bolt on his chest.

 

None of this matters to Speedy who regards cockroaches better than he does Stiles.

 

Speedy’s is oldest out of the sidekicks and the biggest asshole Stiles knows. He isn’t sure how their animosity for each other started, just that it’s always been a general pain to be around each other.

 

When Stiles is fourteen, there’s an invasion of some kind of monsters from the deep in San Francisco and the three sidekicks are holding the beach perimeter while their mentors and a couple of other JL members are taking care of the hive underwater.

 

“If you’re not going to help, get out of the way!” Speedy shouts, firing arrows at an impressively fast pace.

 

“I’m not in the way,” Stiles grits out, not loud enough for anyone other than the monster he’s fighting to hear.

 

“You were that time, actually,” Robin says as she swings by and takes out a couple of stragglers.

 

Stiles scoffs and ignores her. A few minutes later they’ve wrapped up the last of the sea monsters, but there’s a fresh wave coming from the shoreline. Before Stiles, Robin, and Speedy can redirect their attention, a crashing wave sweeps them back into the ocean and a lone figure rides on a beam of water.

 

“Hello,” the boy says. He has a bright smile, his wet hair is sticking to his neck and forehead, and his uniform is distinctly Atlantian. “I am Aqualad. Aquaman and the other members of the Justice League sent me to assist you.”

 

“Yeah, great assist,” Speedy snaps, gesturing to the bodies littering the beach he, Robin, and Stiles are responsible for.

 

“Don’t be an ass,” Stiles says because Aqualad’s bright smile abruptly disappears and he looks like he’s about to apologize, “I’m Kid Flash. This beauty here is Robin, and this is Jerk Face.”

 

“Speedy,” Jerk Face corrects, “We’re doing fine up here. We don’t need backup.”

 

Robin rolls her eyes. “Don’t be stupid. Did you just miss the way Aqualad took out dozens of sea monsters in one move.”

 

Speedy clams up the way he only does when Robin or Green Arrow chastise him and Stiles chuckles a little. Speedy shoots him the finger behind Robin’s back, but because she’s a bat, she has eyes on the back of her head and tsks like a mother would to her squabbling children.

  
Stiles would one day look back on this moment and say this was when it all started.


End file.
